Enclosed Settlements

Introduction

Artist’s reconstruction of Penhale Round, Fraddon, an enclosed
settlement which was excavated in the early 1990s. In the late third and
early fourth centuries AD an outer ditch and bank were added to the existing enclosure and
this scene shows this building work in progress. Drawing
by Jane Stanley.

During the late Iron Age, from about 400 BC, a new form of settlement appeared in the landscape.
They consisted of groups of
round houses and ancillary buildings forming farmsteads or hamlets which
were enclosed by a bank and ditch (sometimes with two or more lines of bank and ditch).
These enclosures are generally quite small – less than a hectare – with a simple entranceway
formed by a gap in the circuit of the bank and ditch. Many are roughly circular or oval in shape
but rectilinear enclosures are also common. Enclosed settlements are frequently sited on hillslopes
with their entrance facing downhill.

Although archaeologists traditionally think of enclosed farmsteads as
synonymous with the Iron Age, peak usage of this form of settlement in
Cornwall was in the second and third centuries AD (AD100-300) during the
Romano-British period. Settlements housed in enclosures were in use right
to the end of the Romano-British period, some as late as the sixth century
AD.

More than 2,500 enclosures are known in Cornwall. Many are ploughed down but their ditches can
be recognised as
cropmarks from aerial photos. In many places the enclosed settlements are sited within
extensive field systems and the farmers living in these hamlets practised mixed agriculture, cultivating crops and keeping a range of livestock.

Cornish Rounds

Enclosed settlements of the Iron Age and Romano-British period in Cornwall have traditionally been called ‘rounds’.
It is easy to see why. The enclosing banks of many survived after their abandonment either as isolated features in the
landscape or as distinctive small round fields incorporated into later field patterns.

The reason for the good survival of rounds is the substantial nature of their banks
which often incorporated large amounts of stonework, including some rounds whose banks
were revetted or faced with blocks of stone. Given the small and irregular form of the later
fields we should not be surprised that it was considered less bother to lay out the fields around
the enclosure than to raze it. Of course in some cases the present day field hedges may well be
following the lines of prehistoric hedges associated with the round.

How did rounds work?

Plan of the excavated Roman-British round at Trethurgy, St Austell, showing the stone-revetted enclosing bank, lengths of the outer ditch, the entrance (towards the bottom of the plan), and the layout of the oval houses and other stone built structures.

Much of our knowledge of Cornish rounds, their dating and how they worked comes from
the few examples which have been excavated. The only one fully excavated is Trethurgy near
St Austell; this has a number of features which are seen as representative of Cornish rounds.

The round at Trethurgy enclosed less than a third of a hectare and was occupied from the middle
of the second century AD until the sixth century. It was enclosed by a single ditch and a bank, both
faces of which were revetted by stone. There was a paved entrance in the downhill side which was
closed by a double-leaved gate. The enclosure contained five stone houses built around its internal
periphery. There were also a range of ancillary buildings, including a byre and a granary. Throughout
the life of the settlement its basic plan was maintained; the houses were rebuilt on the same spot,
and the same areas were used for storage and for stock pens.

Wheat, barley and some oats were cultivated and
livestock were farmed. Small-scale copper alloy production and the smithing of iron took place. A tin ingot from the
fourth century was found suggesting that tin was being mined and smelted in the area, perhaps by the occupants of the round.

Cropmark Rounds

Inevitably many rounds have been levelled by centuries of ploughing. Because the
enclosing ditches and banks of rounds were substantial features – the ditches are two
metres deep on average, sometimes more – they often form very clear cropmarks and
numerous rounds have been identified from aerial photos.

A good example is the site at Trenithan Bennett, Probus. Here the enclosing ditch of a plough-levelled round is visible as a cropmark showing as a green mark against a background of ripened cereal. This enclosure has a number of features typical of Cornish rounds. There is an entrance formed by a simple gap in the ditch on its downhill (left-hand) side; there is a trackway leading up to and through the entrance (showing as a strong green band); and a number of internal features, some of them possibly houses, are visible.

Many thousands of enclosed settlements from the Iron Age and Romano-British periods are
known throughout the British Isles.

Cornish rounds are sometimes compared with enclosures
of apparently similar size and construction found in South Wales (where they are called ‘raths’
or ‘ringworks’) and from Ireland (‘raths’ or ‘ring forts’). However there are differences in the date
range of the three types of enclosure and a more recent view is that it is misleading to link the Welsh and Irish sites with those of Cornwall.

On the other hand the term ‘round’ as a class of monument has become a
handy label to refer to any enclosure in Cornwall thought to be a prehistoric settlement.
Within the county there is an enormous variation in the size and form of enclosures. This is
especially the case with those which have been ploughed down and have been identified from cropmarks on
aerial photos. Many are not round, and there is little or nothing to distinguish them
in appearance from enclosed settlements found in many other parts of the country.

Chronology

Enclosed settlements first appeared in the Cornish landscape around the fourth century BC in the later Iron Age.
At roughly the same time Cornish
hillforts developed from being large irregular enclosures with a single rampart and ditch
into smaller, more regular-shaped structures with one or more concentric ramparts. These changes in monument style
are contemporary with the adoption of a new type of pottery, South Western Decorated ware.

A minority of the enclosed settlements dated by excavation were occupied in the Iron Age.
Some were in use from the later Iron Age into the early part of the Romano-British period; a few
were inhabited beyond the Roman period up to the sixth century. But the peak period for the use
of enclosed settlements was the second and third centuries AD, followed by a gradual decline during
the fourth century.

Some enclosures saw two phases of use; the original settlement expanded, its
enclosing ditch was filled in and a new ditch, enclosing a much larger area, was
dug. Other settlements began life as clusters of round houses which would be
enclosed in the future. At a number of locations enclosed settlements are sited in very
close proximity to each other: whilst this may be a sign of local
population increase, in some cases it is probably the result of one
enclosure being abandoned and a new one being built close by.

Some archaeologists see the enclosure of settlements as a response to social
instability; substantial banks and ditches thrown up around Iron Age farming
hamlets for protection or defence. But the opposite view is proposed by others;
the fact that enclosures are the predominant form of settlement for such a long
period (up to a thousand years) is a symptom of stability in the countryside
rather than stress.

If the banks and ditches around enclosed settlements are not
‘defences’ then what are they for? Why did these ancient farming
communities go to all the trouble of building such substantial
boundaries around their homes? An enclosure as a barrier may have had
symbolic meaning that we in the twenty first century can only guess at.

What is likely, though, is that the defining of a settlement by an
enclosure was a mark of prestige and a measure of the status of its
inhabitants.
Open settlements similar to those in use in the Bronze Age
were a feature of the Iron Age and Roman countryside and are found side
by side with rounds and other enclosed settlements. To use a modern
urban analogy, the prehistoric open settlement might be seen as the
equivalent of a row of terraced houses, whilst the enclosed settlement
corresponds to an avenue of detached houses with large gardens.

If the two forms of settlement represent a differentiation in status between co-operative groups of farmers living in open settlements and those in enclosures, how and by whom was this status conferred?

The answer lies with the
hillforts with which these two forms of settlement shared the landscape. Recent theories about Cornish hillforts see them as the regional centres where farming communities held counsel on issues relating to local society and economy. According to this model they were the communal centres for populations who controlled their own territories and resources, rather than housing an aristocracy who ruled over the local population, as has traditionally been presumed.

The development of multiple enclosure hillforts took place around the same time as the first enclosed settlements appeared in the Cornish landscape. These changes are likely to be linked; they suggest that licence to build enclosures was granted (presumably in return for a tribute) at the community level of society centred on the hillforts. Thus the role of the community level authority, formerly a committee of local farmers, had become extended and was being remodelled as a more fixed body of individuals with local power. This extension of authority was marked by the new form of hillforts.

At Tregonning Hill Castle Pencaire, a multiple enclosure hillfort, sits on the summit. On the lower slopes are two rounds, one of which in the foreground has been partially ploughed down. Rounds situated in the immediate vicinity of hillforts are not uncommon in Cornwall, but we do not fully understand the significance of this pattern of distribution. The corrugated effect on the hill slope is made by
the banks of narrow strip fields. Strip fields are generally a feature
of medieval agriculture but some archaeologists believe those on Tregonning Hill are Iron Age, made by the inhabitants of these two rounds.

Aerial Photography and Enclosed Settlements

Map showing the distribution of rounds and enclosed settlements in Cornwall. Enclosures discovered during Cornwall’s National Mapping Programme are shown in red

The ditches and banks which surround enclosed settlements are substantial features;
enclosure ditches are typically up to two metres deep. Ditches of this size readily produce clear cropmarks
in favourable conditions and many enclosures have been identified from
aerial photos. In a number of cases internal structures such as round
houses and additional features like outer ditches also appear on the
photos.

The mapping of enclosed settlements is one of the
most important aspects of Cornwall’s National Mapping Programme. More
than one thousand new enclosures were identified and this outcome has
led to a reappraisal of the density of rural settlement in Iron Age and
Roman Cornwall

The enclosures that we know about are, of course, not the only ones. An unknown number await discovery.
Already new sites are being spotted on recent photography taken since Cornwall’s National Mapping Programme was
completed. The formation of cropmarks is not a consistent process and depends on a number of factors. Our experience
of aerial archaeology tells us that cropmarks may appear one year but
not the next, so the discovery of archaeological sites relies in part on
luck as well as knowledge and skill. It’s a case of being in the right
place at the right time. By continuing to carry out more flights we will
doubtless make more discoveries.